Government

Since its implementation last year, the Suffolk311 call center for non-emergency inquiries has received over 110,000 calls from residents across the county, 91,661 of them between March and September of this year.

A State Supreme Court justice upheld an expanded permit for the Sand Land mine in Noyac, awarded by the State Department of Environmental Conservation in 2019. The permit has been tied up in litigation ever since.

Two pumpout boats owned and operated by the East Hampton Town Trustees were in particularly heavy use this summer, especially the one based at the Star Island municipal marina in Lake Montauk. The coronavirus pandemic, the trustees maintain, is behind the surge in boating activity, as well as boaters’ eschewing of showers and other public facilities at marinas in favor of those on board. 

Jerry Larsen was elected East Hampton Village mayor on Tuesday, bringing to a close a campaign that was unusual both for its length and frequent conflict among the top-line candidates.

Deputy Mayor Barbara Borsack and Trustee Arthur Graham came in second and third, respectively, when the absentee votes were counted. 

With hours to go before the polls close, Jerry Larsen, a candidate for East Hampton Village mayor in Tuesday's election, has signaled that he intends to contest the results of the election and ask that all ballots, voting machines, and objections to ballots be impounded.

The Town of East Hampton and the town trustees will share a community benefits package worth almost $29 million in exchange for easements allowing Orsted U.S Offshore Wind and Eversource, partners developing the proposed 15-turbine South Fork Wind project, to land the installation's export cable and bury it on a path to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton. 

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy presented detailed goals for a proposal to impose a six-month moratorium on commercial redevelopment in the village's waterfront area at a board meeting on Tuesday. 

Groundwater contamination in the hamlet of Wainscott was not caused by a 70.5-acre former sand and gravel mine in that hamlet, according to a new determination by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Elections for East Hampton Village mayor and two open trustee seats will be held on Tuesday. Voting will take place at the Emergency Services Building at 1 Cedar Street from noon to 9 p.m.

The village plans to develop an affordable housing program that will be overseen by East Hampton Housing Authority, the village board announced at a meeting last Thursday.

In a watershed moment this week, the Southampton Town Board voted unanimously Tuesday in support of the Graves Protection Act and the Shinnecock Hills Building Moratorium. 

New York State's hemp pilot research program has grown from two growers and 30 acres in 2016 to more than 500 producers and 20,000 acres this year, but is set to expire on Oct. 31, and participants in the state's budding hemp industry are nervous about changes in state and federal regulations that they say could have catastrophic consequences just as the industry is starting to thrive.